The internet has become a primary source of information and entertainment for almost a half of the world’s population. As nothing in life is perfect, the internet has his issues too. It requires data from its users to fulfill their desire to get informed or to purchase products.

Data is usually collected with forms. And let’s face it: completing forms is annoying, especially when you have to do it multiple times a day.

As far as the companies are concerned, they have to deal with these facts. They have to approach lead generation to get to know their customers.

Lead generation differs from company to company. While the e-commerce stores have an interest into converting window shoppers into newsletter subscribers, the subscription-based websites use content to generate leads.

Leads are those persons who are showing an interest in the company’s products or services. If you are investing conversion rate optimization efforts to improve the website’s design, you should also care about forms – they’re transforming visitors into leads for your business.

Why do you need to optimize lead generation forms?

To collect information about the potential customers and drive more conversions.

As studies have shown, people rarely buy products from their first visit, either we talk about FMCG goods or software. The buying behavior depends on many factors, but we know for sure that shoppers will convert into buyers if they trust the company. Therefore, to become trustworthy, you need time and repeated visits to the website. These outcomes can come from remarketing campaigns and email.

What is a form conversion whatsoever?

You can declare that the form has accomplished its goal when the visitor has provided the required information and hit the “send”,”download”, “subscribe” button.

But, wait a minute! That doesn’t mean that you have a qualified lead.

For instance, e-commerce stores usually welcome new visitors with a pop up that offers a discount voucher in return for the email address. Experienced shoppers, though, know that this is the usual tactic used by marketers, and they just fill out the form to get their voucher and then hit unsubscribe. The same scenario can be replicated on websites that ask for the email address to give to the prospects a free digital book or the opportunity to participate to a free webinar.

What’s the problem with people who are not showing an interest in what you have to offer, but they still subscribe?

Experienced shoppers are humans too. You cannot blame them because they hunt for vouchers or use a random email address just to donwload an e-book. It depends solely on you if you manage to send relevant content by email and convince them to return to your website.

We know that email has a great ROI.

[Tweet “For every $1 spent, $44 is the average return on email marketing investment.”]

The real conversion happens when you manage to eliminate the visitors’ fears and convince them of the value of your offers that solve their specific problems. A big email list doesn’t mean too much for your business unless the subscribers don’t trust and value the information provided by you.

5 Tips To Optimize Lead Generation Forms

Use fewer form fields. Minimize friction by cutting the number of fields to 3 or 5. You can sacrifice data for conversions in the early stages of the sales funnel. Why asking for too many information about the user when he barely knows you? As the visitor makes repeated visits to the website as a result of the email marketing efforts, he will be ready to provide more details about himself as long as you show him that you are trustworthy.

2. Privacy Policy. Either you create a dedicated page for the Privacy Policy, or you place its key statements near the CTA buttons or the most sensitive fields. No matter how you choose to display it, just don’t forget including it when creating forms.

3. Test the CTA buttons. People usually don’t know what is going to happen when they hit a button: they just get an idea. Be clear with the button’s wording and say exactly what is going to happen next. If not sure how clear your message is, use an A/B testing software to test different versions.

4. Visible form. The “above the fold” rule may not apply to everyone, but most certainly the form has to be visible at a first glance.

5. Reduce the number of required fields. Required means that the conversion cannot take place without the user completing the information. It has to do with a psychological barrier rather than the quantity of information the visitors have to provide.

Getting back to you, I want to say that these are just guidelines that I hope will help you with creating forms. As far as the technical work is concerned, I recommend you to use a form generator that doesn’t require HTML knowledge. This online tool is called 123ContactForm, and it allows marketers to build several types of forms such as contact forms, lead generation forms, polls and quizzes and other feedback forms.

123ContactForm has a great support team behind to help getting familiar with the tool asap. Depending on the customer’s needs, the company offers a Basic Package that is always free, targeted to casual users. For more advanced features, they provide with 4 plans built for various types of users and companies. The paid plans include integration with 3rd party solutions providers such as Mailchimp, SalesForce, ZohoCRM and others.

Don’t forget that lead generation forms need optimization for the sake of your business healthy growth. A sudden boost in online sales may excite you for the moment, but on the long run you need to make sure that you base your marketing campaigns on a solid, tested structure.

Elena is passionate about writing and online marketing. Lead generation and conversion rate optimization are her favorite marketing tactics because they involve both creativity and planning. She also tweets @HDobre.